One of the biggest expenses I'm worried about with my transition is laser hair removal, but I'm starting to wonder if the hormones will take care of some of that for me. Wouldn't my hair growth reduce to where a regular woman grows hair anyway or should I remove all my hair first?

Your facial hair won't really be impacted by HRT at all.

And from experience, I'd recommend starting facial hair removal ASAP. Not only the sooner the better, but if you start before HRT, you'll generally have much more of a tolerance to the pain and can therefore go quicker ( and so it will cost less ). But yeah, it's pretty expensive.

For other body hair, YMMV... You'll have to wait and see... or try laser / electrolysis.

Depends on how dark, long, coarse and extensive your body hair is. HRT will reduce it a little bit over time... but you'll get better results with waxing (temporary) or laser (permanent). BTW, laser only works with dark hair on light skin.

Quote from: SammyRose on November 27, 2013, 03:20:55 AM
Your facial hair won't really be impacted by HRT at all.

And from experience, I'd recommend starting facial hair removal ASAP. Not only the sooner the better, but if you start before HRT, you'll generally have much more of a tolerance to the pain and can therefore go quicker ( and so it will cost less ). But yeah, it's pretty expensive.

Agreed!

I imagine that HRT could speed up the thinning of weakened hairs, but not until those thick coarse hairs are forced to leave at least a few times.

+1 to starting hair removal asap and as aggressively as possible. It takes a really long time.

Quote from: Magnolia88 on November 27, 2013, 03:10:08 AM
One of the biggest expenses I'm worried about with my transition is laser hair removal, but I'm starting to wonder if the hormones will take care of some of that for me. Wouldn't my hair growth reduce to where a regular woman grows hair anyway or should I remove all my hair first?

If you have the hair/skin colors that would make LHR effective I would suggest starting ASAP. Look on Groupon. A lot of places have good sales. I got 6 sessions for like $140 total. I'll need more because my facial hair was super thick but that deal cut a lot out of the cost

Do at least 7 sessions on your face before serious
Electrolysis clearings start. You will shave off a year maybe .

Do not use ipl.    Do not use eos technology..
Actually there is only two lasers you need to concern
Yourself with. Lumenis lightsheer diode and duet.

Trust me on the duet part its the fastest and most effective
Laser ever made.

Alexandrite laser works great too from my research- it is roughly the same light wavelength as the ones Christine mentioned